Always Together : Always Family
by Crucifix HiME
Summary: AU. Long after the end of the purge, the remaining Vongola and their allies move to Germany incognito to protect their damaged Boss. And even then, the danger has not passed. As a family, its their duty to stick together through thick and thin.


**Disclaimer:** Characters are certainly not mine but the story most certainly is!

* * *

 **Always Together : Always Family**

Somewhere in Germany…

Sawada Tsunayoshi was wandering the forlorn streets of a quiet town in the evening light.

His state was even worse than when his ex-tutor had first met him. The former Vongola Decimo currently nothing but an empty shell.

The brunet paused and tilted his head in confusion before his features slowly evened out, back into its blank state.

 _Ex-tutor? Tutor?_

Did Tsuna ever actually have someone like that?

His voice was scratchy as it softly muttered.

His whispers heard only by the dancing winds.

.

.

.

A white haired doctor gasped in shock when he walked into the empty room, his wayward patient had escaped yet again.

"What's wrong idiot?" came a gruff voice, another head of white hair spying over the shoulder of the doctor. The man abruptly stiffened at the sight of the empty room.

"Damnit!" Ryohei cursed as he dashed into the room.

Frantically looking left and right, he tried to find what his troublesome younger brother had done this time to escape from his room.

In the far corner was a scorched black area where the wall was practically burnt right through. He knelt down to examine it.

"Merda!" came the alarmed curse and Ryohei turned to see his fellow Guardian already with his phone whipped out.

 _Not again…_

 _Oh god._

The doctor got up to his feet and proceeded to dash out of the grey padded cell and down the wide hallway. A frantic call from Gokudera telling him to wait fell onto deaf ears.

 _Please no…_ he mentally begged.

.

.

.

Tsuna, his proclaimed younger sibling, after fulfilling his duty of destroying Vongola and nearly decimating three quarter of the mafia had been badly damaged. He had shown the symptoms of PTSD and several amnestic disorders in succession gradually getting worse by the day. Unfortunately the worst thing about his little brother's condition was his unstable memories. It was one thing if he'd only lost a portion of memory or he kept reliving a specific day over and over, but his memories were sporadic in their loss and spontaneous in their recovery.

It was a new ailment to many of the doctors who had sided with the Guardians, and most of them didn't know how to treat it.

It's not like they hadn't tried, it was just… One minute they were dealing with the 'Decimo' and next it would be 'innocent three year old Tsuna' then 'torture victim' and back to _Tsuna_. There were even times Tsuna forgot about his Guardians and the people who he worked together with to accomplish his dream. It was a big shock to everyone.

Most had not taken the news well and tried everything in their power to get Tsuna the best medical care money could buy. Others had slinked off like cowards, unable to face the man they had come to admire. And then there were the few who were 'keeping the peace' to prevent any stragglers from reforming the mafia into the grotesque thing it once was, they were the ones who were patiently awaiting their Boss' recovery.

But their situations aside, Tsuna's condition had only gotten worse.

At first, it seemed as though his little brother was actually starting to recover, Gokudera and Chrome had been ecstatic, Yamamoto had collapsed in relief, Mukuro and Hibari had relaxed a smidge and even the Arcobaleno had been relieved. And Ryohei, had of course been grinning from ear to ear while chattering off to a semi-lucid Tsuna.

It wasn't until a month Ryohei himself had noticed something strange. Tsuna had been showing signs of blood loss and it was reaching dangerously low levels. Not wanting to scare his fellow Guardians, Ryohei kept the information to himself and decided to monitor Tsuna a little more closely by placing a few recorders in his hospital room.

What he saw was his worst nightmare come to life.

Tsuna had been cutting himself deeply every night in inconspicuous places. It was definitely self-harm, but still…something seemed off.

The next day he had told the Guardians and some their closer allies about what Tsuna was doing. It had been the single most horrifying moment of Ryohei's life when he saw his fellow Guardians and friends falling into despair. But as usual, Reborn was the one to snap them out of it and give them hope.

Ryohei had vowed on his life to fix his little brother.

But first, he had to find out what was wrong.

And it didn't take long to realise. That Tsuna's memories had been entirely rewritten. Ryohei had almost lost his head and freaked when Reborn had snapped and shook Tsuna like a deranged man pleading for the brunet to remember him, remember their _family_. But Tsuna denied ever seeing them in his life. When some of the others had walked in to witness that.

Ryohei could see it.

Something fracturing in their eyes.

They were losing Tsuna.

And the thing that fractured in them, began chipping away at them slowly the more Tsuna denied their existence and the more the brunet had begun desperately trying to end his own life.

It wasn't until weeks later that he realised what exactly was _off_ about his brother.

Mukuro and Chrome had flipped their shit quite literally when Ryohei's suspicions were confirmed. Copious amounts of Mist flames had been messing with their Sky's memories and causing them all grief. The Mist Guardians had wanted nothing more than to track the bastards down and outright slaughter them for messing with them, and most of all, for messing with Tsuna, but that applied to all the Guardians and Vongola's remaining allies.

They wanted vengeance.

But recovering their Sky was more important.

It took tireless days before Mukuro, Chrome, Mammon and Torikabuto had finally purged every last flicker of the foreign flames from within Sawada Tsunayoshi's body.

The suicide attempts stopped indefinitely after that.

After the Mists had done their job it was the Suns' turn to do their job and while Ryohei might still not be the brightest crayon in the box, he had become observant over the years. So there was absolutely no way for him to have missed the curt nod Yamamoto and Hibari had given in reply to Reborn's sharp look, much less their and a few bloodthirsty individual's absence thereafter.

Ryohei had only been mildly disappointed that he hadn't joined them.

Tsuna had gradually began to recover fully. Even Tsuna's memories, damaged as they were. He remembered them all. Every single one of them, down to the youngest. It had been so alieving that everyone who had been suffering with the pure Sky had all finally let the sadness, fear and desperation out.

It started with a single tear, then came the sobs, the stifled whimpering and then the outright wailing.

Ryohei had never cried as hard as he did that day. His worried little brother reaching out weak arms to comfort them all.

.

.

.

Somewhere in Rostock…

Ryohei was panting and sweating a river.

In a hoarse voice he called out, "Tsuna! Where are you?!" A few heads turned at his desperate cry but they otherwise ignored him.

Despite Tsuna's recovery, they all knew that having Tsuna back with them in their lives had cost a pretty penny with the devil.

Tsuna had 'episodes'.

Where, when all of a sudden, he falls into a state of utter blankness. His memories struggling not to fade away. 'A pure white canvas occasionally stained ash grey' as the pineapple had mentioned at one point.

When Tsuna has an 'episode' he usually wanders out and away. Which is why the brunet is never left alone, but if he absolutely has to be, they lock him in a cell for his own good. Of course they never leave the small brunet alone for longer than necessary (the paranoia that they might mentally damage the brunet has them all jumpy). But if they do leave him and he somehow disappears…

The best thing they can do is find him as quickly as possible lest something happens to him. Despite not being the Vongola Boss anymore, the brunet still has a target painted on his back.

Gulping down a deep breath of air, Ryohei is off again.

.

.

.

When Ryohei pauses it's because of the obnoxious ringtone blaring from his phone. The screamo music indicating that Gokudera was calling him.

He answers.

"We found him." Was the out breath response.

Ryohei splutters, "Where?!" It was almost eight at night.

"The outskirts of Hamburg. Verde caught him… When Reborn heard, he got a lock on their location and went to collect the Te—Tsu- Tsuna…" Gokudera was still getting used to referring to Tsuna by his first name.

Sighing in relief Ryohei says, "Okay, thanks for telling me."

A snort was heard, "You ran like a bat out of hell screaming Ts- Tsuna's name high and low. I _had_ to tell you!"

Ryohei pinched the bridge of his nose, "You know that I'm an act first think later sort of guy right?"

A snicker, "Just get your ass back home already. Tsuna is gonna need you when he gets back."

A grin stretches across the former mafioso's lips, "Yeah! See ya later Octopus!" he hangs up before Gokudera could explode.

 **END.**

* * *

 **OMAKE**

At the former Vongola hideout in Lübeck…

"Can someone tell me how in the hell my dame student wandered all the way out to Hamburg? Without at least catching any of your eyes." The deadly teenage hitman sticks his thumb out over his shoulder pointing at said dame student.

The dazed brunet was quietly listening to Verde rant about something that Gokudera was hotly countering. The argument nyooming right over the poor brunet's head. He was still under the aftereffects of the 'episode'.

Shouichi was hiding behind a whistling Byakuran and Colonello was cringing from the triple deluxe stare of 'doom' from his wife, Fon and Reborn. Lal Mirch was half a blood vessel away from killing her idiot blond husband.

"In my defense kora, the kid was using his flames to avoid us!"

"My~ I thought Tuna-chan only used his flames to blast a hole into the wall." Chimed Byakuran.

Lal Mirch and Fon took a menacing step towards the alarmed blond. "If I die I'm charging you to bury me Gesso!"

Byakuran waved a hanky at the blond.

Fon landed the first hit.

"And you!" Reborn's snap had Shouichi whimpering, "What's your excuse?"

"I was with Yuni…"

Yuni was all the way over in Berlin living with Byakuran, the fact that Byuakuran was even here with him (willingly letting himself be used as a meat shield) meant that white haired menace had just recently brought him back…

"You're off the hook." Reborn states and his fellow Sun user collapses in relief.

Byakuran hummed, "I still don't know why you're even acting like you're the guilty one Sho-chan. You weren't even here."

"I'm wondering that myself…" Reborn grumbles.

"But it was my turn to watch Tsuna if he had another 'episode'!" Shouichi moaned, "Why did I ever think it was alright to ask _Colonello_ to watch him…?"

Both Reborn and Byakuran turn to see the sorry unconscious lump that was Colonello, his wife seated upon his carcass. They also see Tsuna crouched next to the blond eyeing him all sorts of weird with a jittery Gokudera hovering at his back.

Reborn snorts in mild amusement at the sight.

In the distance the occupants in the room hear the front door being slammed open and closed with a shout of 'EXTREME SPRINT'. Gokudera rolled his eyes.

Next thing they know, and before even Reborn could react. A sweaty Ryohei barrels into the former Vongola Boss.

A shocked silence blankets the room.

"Don't ever scare me like that again little brother." Ryohei manages in a soft voice.

.

.

.

"Grraahhhhh! Lawnhead! Leggo of the Tenth already, you sweaty disgusting oaf!"

"…maybe you should take a bath Ryohei-san."

"Aww…If you don't let go, Tuna might need a bath too~"

"I extremely volunteer to take a bath with him!"

"No way lawnhead!"

"All of you shut the fuck up!"

Tsuna watches all of the ensuing chaos with a small smile and a tinkling laugh.

"My _Family…_ "


End file.
